You also joined this forum in Dec 1969(pre internet)! Talkin' about being on the bleeding edge.

I'd like to see a Thunderbolt solution from Avid that is basically the HD I/O combined with HDX all in one box. It would take the UAD Apollo concept to a different level, as there would be access to way more DSP plug-ins among many other things. To me, this is an obvious move at some point.

Shane

I've been saying this for a long time as many others........before UAD, HDX......Avid doesn't listen!

i've been advocating an external DSP box to replace the TDM cards since early 2010. (long before the HDX cards were launched.)

there's a list of good reasons why giant PCI cards (which are going the way of the dodo bird soon), and antiquated DSP chips should have been abandoned before the HDX transition. neither of these two choices were logical from a technology perspective.

unfortunately, there's also a list of good reasons why HDX appeared in the format it did. and they all make perfect sense from a dollars and cents business perspective.

in avid's defence on the clunky "card" front, don't forget that still to this day, there is no replacement for the Mac Pro, and the latest available models don't have thunderbolt. avid's HD products are aimed at professional facilities, none of whom are running their systems on TB equipped laptops! (and very few running windows machines!) so at least avid has a good excuse on that point.

IMO there's no excuses for the dinosaur DSP chips though. to me it's akin to selling day-olds as freshly baked...

YMMV

Many have been advocating about moving away from PCIe.......Avid doesn't listen?

Wow, as of this post I had 107 replies and 13,788 views! I started this thread a year ago. I think there has been enough interest on this subject for Avid to take notice. The PCI standard is alive and well. It's the concept of cards being placed into big boxes that is being phased out. The concept of big boxes is also being phased out. Soon we'll have laptops with 8, 16, 24 cores ("soon" is a relative term). iPads with 8, then 12/16/20/24 cores. A new Mac Pro - a server size Intel in a yet to be known package. It's coming. My laptop is still running 2 external monitors at 2560 x 1440 each, plus its retina display. It really is amazing. When Avid finally gives me the product I want, then maybe I'll start another thread!

We are effectively there now, just waiting for the full commercial release of the elements.....Was at a pt11 demo event last week in Glasgow and the Avid guys demo'd the new PT11 software on a mac laptop using a HDX2 in a Magma Thunderbolt chassis with a I/O interface. So just a few cables to link it up, Thunderbolt from computer to Magma, then standard link cables from HDX cards to I/O. Great sound and they did a live recording to demo the ability to work in real time with low low latency.

Also they showed a video which had a PT10 vs PT11 session which showed how the new engine played a 100+ track session with less than a 1/3rd of the CPU and DSP power of PT10. So the streamlining under the hood is huge!!